Advice For Parents

As schools turn more attention to test preparation and meeting complex curriculum goals, teachers have limited time to work on character and social-skill development. Recess, social time and interactions that do not directly relate to curriculum standards take a back seat to reading, writing, math and STEM. This focus on academics means that parents should emphasize different goals for summer out-of-school time — from simply keeping kids engaged with backyard games or beach trips to...

Camp directors work hard to portray the benefits their camp can provide to children. Camp offers the opportunity to make friends, to experience the outdoors, to “just be a kid” for a little while, to learn a hobby or sport…the list goes on and on. It’s printed on the brochure, posted on the website, talked about during introductory visits. But what stretches the list even further is the intangible and often unanticipated “gifts of learning” that...

If your child has special needs or unique circumstances, you might think that the process of finding the right summer camp falls anywhere on a scale from mildly terrifying to completely overwhelming to absolutely impossible. You might even think that, at best, you are looking for a camp that will “let” your camper come, or one that will expect your child to do all the trying when it comes to fitting in with the world around them. But relax, because it doesn’t have to be...